In about eight hours, I will be sitting with my political peers, watching the election coverage. For the first time in a very long one, I feel... well, good. I hope.

I hope that sick stops being a four letter word, and that this country learns that it is as important to save a life as it is noble to take one.

I hope that people learn that it is as important for me to respect your want to own an instrument of destruction as it is for you to respect my want to decide what happens to, about, and within my own body.

I hope that we realize what we try to teach our children - that when have lost we should have grace and humility. In sport. In friendly competition. In combat.

I hope that we stop thinking we are bigger than other countries and the world at large. It's that line of thinking that has cost us respect and essentially ended the glory period we imagine we are still in.

I hope that people realize that love makes family, and that is all that matters. Until the very people who judge another can understand that they are playing with other people's lives and that no one should have to hold their breath waiting to be themselves, we are not a free country. Period.

Hope is a dangerous thing. It gets in your head and in your heart and changes you. It makes you unable and unwilling to stand as a spectator. It makes injustice intolerable. Today is my country's chance to mend. To fix our problems by first realizing we have them, and we all must work together if they ever will be repaired.

I hope we get it right. I hope we have the strength. But most importantly, I hope. That is what matters, because that's where change begins.

I'm not going to tell you to vote, because I have complete faith that my friends understand the importance of today.

I cried for a solid 30 minutes after reading this I'll have you know. Brilliant, just utterly brilliant.

This entry from lolasenvy is as brilliant as it is eloquent.Thanks to ur friend for the post.and thanks to you for sharing it.

As an aside - 1988 was the year my kid bro was born, i was 13, i had just found Tracy Chapman (who remains when of my most all time favorite artists.) - that was the year i realized that there was so much more to the world than just myself.